# How did people handle blurry vision prior to corrective lenses? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 27, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-handle-blurry-vision-prior-to-corrective-lenses/600934 "2011-10-27T02:26:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-handle-blurry-vision-prior-to-corrective-lenses/600934/41 "2011-10-27T22:21:54Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Do you have a cute earring? I should guess that if she has any, she probably has at least two. ---
**Author:** ![smokey78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@smokey78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smokey78)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-handle-blurry-vision-prior-to-corrective-lenses/600934/42 "2011-10-27T23:11:03Z")
Before glasses were in popular use, I guess most middle ages folks were just considered blind. How sad! Technically I can get by w/o glasses if I didn’t have to drive and read chalkboards. SO I could have survived in the Middle Ages just pickin potatoes and such. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-handle-blurry-vision-prior-to-corrective-lenses/600934/43 "2011-10-28T01:51:28Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Raise a glass to cataract surgeons as well. The [Romans](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7194352.stm) had cataract operations and diverse opthalomological medications. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-handle-blurry-vision-prior-to-corrective-lenses/600934/44 "2011-10-28T02:48:59Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > How? Does bad vision prevent people from reproducing? I’ve got one really bad eye, and one mediocre eye. Since I was a rug rat, I’ve compensated for blurriness (and a lack of depth perception). And I don’t wear glasses. Which has actually helped me reproduce. (My wife looks pretty good, to me…) ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-handle-blurry-vision-prior-to-corrective-lenses/600934/45 "2011-10-28T03:03:39Z")
> [@Quintas](#): > > In ancient Rome, I wonder how much of the lowered life expectancy at age 15 (adults) was due to warfare? I don’t know, but the pattern extends to other pre- 1800 societies. > [@Nava](#): > > Or to cancer, stomach ulcers, gout, tuberculosis… You missed the big category: infectious disease. That was curbed by public health and sanitation during the 1800s and early 1900s. Oddly, 20th century antibiotics are much less than half of the story. > [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Life expectancy was low because of high infant mortality. That’s an exaggeration, one which is commonly believed. Respectfully, you may want to refer to last year’s thread, [Was the lower life expectancy of yore pretty much all due to infant mortality?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=578830) A: No, not all of it. ---
**Author:** ![TheBori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ee7513/32.png) [@TheBori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBori)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-handle-blurry-vision-prior-to-corrective-lenses/600934/46 "2011-10-28T04:31:28Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > How? Does bad vision prevent people from reproducing? I’m convinced I would have been eaten by a bear. “Bob? Is that you?”…crunch. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-handle-blurry-vision-prior-to-corrective-lenses/600934/47 "2011-10-28T05:39:43Z")
WAG A lot of science and knowledge was lost after the Library of Alexandria was destroyed. It had to be relearned and discovered in the Middle Ages. I’ve always thought corrective lens were a “lost” technology from the Greek & Roman days. They blew a lot of glass and I’m sure people noticed the magnifying effects. It’s not that big a leap to holding a piece in front of your eye. They didn’t have the technology for fine optics grinding but basic reader glasses like we buy in drug stores aren’t that high tech. > [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > There’s a story that one of the Roman emperors (Nero, I think) discovered that he could see much better when he held a big jewel against his eye. The way it was cut just happened to mimic a corrective lens by chance. ---
**Author:** ![taffygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@taffygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/taffygirl)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-handle-blurry-vision-prior-to-corrective-lenses/600934/48 "2011-10-28T13:18:05Z")
I didn’t realize pinhole lenses would be helpful for myopia. I learned something! 🙂 However, the ophthalmologists (Yeah, more than one; I’ve had to see a lot of specialists.) who had me using them short-term for post-surgical astigmatism were also correct > [@](#): > > Pinhole glasses reduce the blur of astigmatism by limiting the distance between the two points of light on the retina, thus helping sufferers to see more clearly. The same site offers this on modern vs. historical vision problems: > [@](#): > > Recent studies have revealed that although myopia can be hereditary, it is also accentuated by chronic use of the eyes for short-distance focusing, such as when working at a computer screen. Evolution has programmed our eyes to naturally focus in the middle to long-distance when our eyes are at rest. To focus on close-up work our eye muscles must tense, thickening the eye lens, in order to focus the light rays upon the retina. Persistent or prolonged short-distance focusing causes pressure to increase in the vitreous chamber of the eye, thus elongating the eyeball. So maybe some vision problems _were_ less prevalent in ancient times. [http://www.pinhole-glasses.com/solution%20to%20common%20eye%20complaints.htm](http://www.pinhole-glasses.com/solution%20to%20common%20eye%20complaints.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-handle-blurry-vision-prior-to-corrective-lenses/600934/49 "2011-10-28T13:29:23Z")
> [@Quintas](#): > > In ancient Rome, I wonder how much of the lowered life expectancy at age 15 (adults) was due to warfare? Well, one point that’s often overlooked is that higher population density facilitates the spread of epidemic diseases. Come to think of it, the Roman road system might have contributed to that. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-handle-blurry-vision-prior-to-corrective-lenses/600934/50 "2011-10-28T17:21:06Z")
Slight tangent: In the Bible story of Leah and Rachel (wives of Jacob) in Genesis, Leah is described as being the less attractive sister at least in part because of her eyes. In some translations the word used is “weak.” One explanation I heard was that she was very nearsighted, so she squinted, rendering herself less attractive. Personal anecdote: I was very nearsighted since early childhood, although not diagnosed until about 3rd grade. I also spent a lot of time with my nose in a book. Which was cause and which effect? I sure couldn’t see a ball well enough to try to hit it, that’s for sure. But I could see the words in the book. Both my daughters also read well before kindergarten, and neither one has eyes anywhere near as bad as mine. In fact, my younger daughter is a regular eagle-eye. When we’re driving somewhere, she picks up the words on road signs well before I do, even with my expensive corrective lenses. In pre-history I imagine I’d have been the seamstress and she would have been the hunter/gatherer, given the chance. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-handle-blurry-vision-prior-to-corrective-lenses/600934/51 "2011-10-28T17:30:24Z")
Pepys ceased to write his diary because his eyes hurt too much and he feared he was going blind. He had spectacles, but they didn’t help much - he was probably astigmatic, which they couldn’t treat. He tried looking through a pair of tubes - if he had sat on his tubes and crushed them it might have improved things. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-handle-blurry-vision-prior-to-corrective-lenses/600934.md?page=2)